


The God of the Nether

by amooniesong



Series: The Prophecy Unfolds: Expanded Universe [4]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Drabble, Gods, Illumina and Phil are teenagers, Manhunt AU, The Nether (Minecraft)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27233662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amooniesong/pseuds/amooniesong
Summary: Phil was gifted the Nether for his fifteenth birthday. He's seventeen now, and has already begun to transform and develop the realm, but his grand ideas are about to come to an abrupt halt.------------------Pre-Prophecy drabble for the Manhunt AU.
Relationships: Illumina & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: The Prophecy Unfolds: Expanded Universe [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933918
Comments: 31
Kudos: 64





	The God of the Nether

Phil was a child the first time he crossed into the other world, an experience that no child should endure. The heat was terrible, the barren wastelands had little in the way of landmarks that made it easy to get lost, and the ground itself was dangerous. Below the narrow strip of netherrack he’d stepped out of the portal onto was a terrifying,  _ long  _ plunge towards a pit of lava. Between being swallowed up by the fiery liquid, overheating, and starving alone in the wilderness of the Nether it was a place that no one as young as Phil should be. 

He’d been nine, and Lizzie had brought him home. She’d taken him to the river to help him cool off (and the few fish that had been created swimming through his legs was enough to make him laugh), made him supper, then put him to bed. Her care was enough to keep the worst of the nightmares at bay, and the Nether was left as a memory. 

The next few years were spent growing up. He laughed, he cried, he fought with the other young Gods and he made amends. He learned to apologize when he was wrong, and stand his ground when he was right. He practiced using his powers and fighting.

He was fifteen when his childhood came to an end, and he was escorted through a hauntingly familiar portal. Phil remembered the purple sheet, the obsidian frame, and despite how foggy and unclear the memories were it was enough for him to use his powers to shield himself from the worst the Nether could throw at him when he first arrived.

The world had already changed in the years gone by. There was now light coming from the ceiling - a golden, fragile light that seemed to exist only in conglomerations and turned to dust with a too rough touch - and there was life that surrounded them. Not much life, trees didn’t grow, civilizations weren’t in existence, but pigs stood on their hind legs like a primitive kind of person and awful creatures with haunting cries filled the sky of the endless caverns. They were ghastly, and the name stuck.

What many could have seen as a desolate land, a hellscape, a place of suffering and torture, Phil saw as a project. This world was being  _ gifted  _ to him by the Creator, to do with as he saw fit, and he began to pull back from his life with Lizzie, Illumina, and Technoblade to instead experiment with his powers of creation. It became a game, to see what kinds of things he could bring into existence, how much life he could force into the world, and he learned to enjoy the isolation he had put himself in. Rather than return to the Overworld he helped the Pigmen to advance, teaching them to build great structures of their own. As the Fortresses they created became the cornerstones of their civilization, meeting points of differing tribes and places that held great bounties, there was interest from the people of the Overworld. Not from the other Gods, but from the Humans that had begun to claim the Overworld as their own, as if there  _ wasn’t  _ a God that had created it, and another that ruled over it. Illumina’s refusal to control the species of his realm caused a great deal of tension between the two, and so Phil made the Nether harder to navigate.

The developments of the Pigmen were a testament to his dedication, so he taught them to fight back if attacked. He created creatures of fire that patrolled the Fortresses and defended them when the Pigmen were absent, and creatures that could traverse the lava seas without any difficulty. 

It was difficult to keep track of time in the Nether, but a visit from Lizzie marked his birthday. She understood that he had chosen to dedicate his time to developing his realm and didn’t overstay her welcome, and that was how he saw in his sixteenth year. He made a promise to emerge from the Nether and return to the Overworld for Illumina’s birthday a few weeks later. No mention was made of Technoblade, but knowing that he had just turned fifteen, Phil was certain he would have been granted a world of his own. He assumed that Technoblade would be experiencing the same desire to create and change as he had, and so he didn’t ask. 

From time to time, he noticed nether wart going missing when he was certain that no Human had come through a portal, and he would hear the sound of a Blaze or a Ghast being killed but find no culprit. He spent a good deal of time trying to uncover the mystery behind the issues, wondering if he’d done something wrong when he’d created them, but he found no answers. It was a time consuming task that had led him astray from his original goal of creation, but  _ perfection  _ was just as important to him.

On his seventeenth birthday he was visited by Illumina instead of Lizzie, though he would never complain. The man had been like a brother to him when they were growing up and while they butt heads over the reaches of the beings in their worlds, he was still Illumina. 

“Take a look at this, Lumi.” Phil said with a smile, immediately wanting to show him some of his newer creations, but Illumina didn’t look happy to see him. Phil tried to ignore it, not wanting to hear of any  _ bad news,  _ and instead tried to guide the younger towards the new ores he’d been forming. It wasn’t working.

“You need to come home, Phil.” Illumina said. “The Creator needs us.”

“This is my home.” Phil said, before he stood in silence for a moment. This wasn’t the man he remembered as a brother, this Illumina was different. His voice was flat, his expression unreadable, and it unnerved Phil. The tension grew between them and after a beat. he removed his hat with one hand and ran the other through his hair. “Why do I feel like there’s something you aren’t telling me, Lumi.”

“Because you’d be right. Come back to the Overworld, this isn’t the place for the conversation.”

“The Creator can come to this world, you’re already here, I don’t see why I need to leave my realm unguarded.”

“I’m not trying to give the Humans a chance to sneak into your world, Phil, this isn’t about us.”

“Then what are you here fo-”

“It’s about Lizzie.”

That stopped Phil. He let out a shaky breath, no longer feeling threatened, and his features softened ever so slightly. He placed his hat back on his head and brought his hands to his face, rubbing away sweat and dirt from his forehead. Hearing the phrase  _ it’s about Lizzie  _ when she wasn’t there terrified him: Lizzie had been a protector and a mentor to the three boys growing up. She had always cared for them and always made them feel safe, she’d given them a chance of a childhood before they’d been granted their powers and their worlds. 

“Is she-”

“She’s alive.” Illumina said, as if realising that his words had immediately caused Phil to fear the worst. “But you need to come with me.”

Somehow, Illumina failed to instill any kind of confidence in Phil surrounding the situation, and he nodded. Whatever happened to his realm while he was gone, he was capable of recreating and rebuilding. For now, his focus was on Lizzie and whatever the Creator required of him. 

He just hoped whatever it was, everything would turn out okay in the end. 

**Author's Note:**

> woooooo lore! lore being written out of order because i'm just enjoying writing different aspects of their lives wooo! lore that maybe is starting to hint at some of what might be the multi-chapter fic featuring the gods woo! 
> 
> hope you enjoyed this little drabble of lore <3 as always, find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/amooniesong), & leave a comment or a kudos! it makes my day :D


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